come, and told Marie; and Marie began straightway to go
back and forth in the village, with a pleased air of mystery.

XIV.

The birthday fell on a day in June. It so happened that Hetty was later
than usual in leaving her patients that night; and her purpose had been
to go home by the nearest way, and not pass through the Square. The
villagers had feared this, and had forestalled her; at the turning where
she would have left the main road, she found waiting for her the
swiftest-footed urchin in all St. Mary's, little Pierre Michaud. The
readiest witted, too, and of the freest tongue, and he was charged to
bring Aunt Hibba by the way of the Square, but by no means to tell her
the reason.

"And if she say me nay, what is it that I am to tell her, then?" urged
Pierre.

"Art thou a fool, Pierre?" said his mother, sharply, "Thou'rt ready
enough with excuses, I'll warrant, for thy own purposes: invent one now.
It matters not, so that thou bring her here." And Pierre, reassured by
this maternal _carte blanche_ for the best lie he could think of, raced
away, first tucking securely into a niche of the stone basin the little
pot with a red carnation in it which he had brought for his contribution
to the birthday _fete_.

When Hetty saw Pierre waiting at the corner, she exclaimed:

"What, Pierre, loitering here! The sunset is no time to idle. Where are
your goats?"

"Milked an hour ago, Tantibba[1], and in the shed," replied Pierre, with
a saucy air of having the best of the argument, "and my mother waits in
the Square to speak to thee as thou passest."

[Footnote 1: "Tante Hibba."]

"I was not going that way, to-night," replied Hetty. "I am in haste.
What does she wish? Will it not do as well in the morning?"

Alarmed at this suggestion, young Pierre made a master-stroke of
invention, and replied on the instant:

"Nay, Bo Tantibba[2], that it will not; for it is the little sister of
Jean Cochot which has been badly bitten by a fierce dog, and the mother
has her there in her arms waiting for thee to dress her wounds. Oh, but
the blood doth run! and the little one's cries would pierce thy heart!"
And the rascally Pierre pretended to sob.

[Footnote 2: The French Canadians often contract "bonne" and "bon" in
this way. "Bo Tantibba" is contraction for "Bonne Tante Hibba."]

"Eh, eh, how happened that?" said Hetty, hurrying on so swiftly towards
the Square that even Pierre's brisk little legs could hardly kee